PSYC212 - Chapter 2

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read?

"What is the argument?" and "What is the evidence to support the argument?"

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results: A change to which of the following cells will result in a different interpretation of the results of subliminal messages?

A change in any cell will result in a different interpretation.

What is the problem with being swayed by a good story?

A good story may not be supported by data

Which of the following is the correct ordering of the sections of an empirical journal article?

Abstract, Method, Results, Discussion, References

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following?

Confirmation bias

Which of the following is the last section of an empirical journal article?

Discussion

If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?

Edited books

Which of the following is a limitation of Google Scholar compared to PsycINFO?

Google Scholar is not limited to just psychology and related fields.

Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the blind spot bias, what would you ask him?

Have you tested this conclusion systematically?

What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?

Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.

Which of the following is NOT a section or subsection commonly found in an empirical journal article?

Outcomes

RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results: To understand whether the subliminal messages have an effect, Charlotte needs to consider which of the following cells in the chart?

She must consider all of the cells.

Javier wants his lab partner to tell him if he thinks the article he found for their project is appropriate. Rather than have him read the article, which two parts of the paper could Javier have his lab partner read to get a summary of the article?

The abstract and the first paragraph of the discussion

Looking for which of the following in a trade book will give you a hint as to its scientific rigor?

The number of references

Which of the following is a benefit of using a wiki to review psychological research?

The wiki page can be corrected quickly.

Why is it important to adopt the mindset of a scientific reasoner?

To avoid falling into the pitfalls of personal biases

Which of the following is a problem presented by the availability heuristic?

We do not examine all of the evidence, only what we can quickly think of.

Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the present/present bias, what would you ask him?

What about the times you opened with a joke and didn't become friends with the person?

In which of the following scenarios should you be skeptical of an authority?

When they based their opinions on their intuition

Asking questions to get the answers we want is known as:

confirmation bias.

Ellie is looking for a summary of research on the effect size of childhood abuse on adult depression. Which of the following scientific sources would be an ideal source?

A meta-analysis

You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus. The speaker, Dr. Darian, is an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?

His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.

Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. Where should she go if she wants to look for a list of the study's hypotheses or research questions?

Last paragraph of the introduction

Matthew is reading an empirical journal article and wants to know whether the authors used the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) or the NEO-PI to measure extraversion. In which section would he find this information?

Method

How would you adopt the mindset of a scientific reasoner?

Remaining objective as you interpret scientific data

Angela reads about a study in which cell phone use is associated with migraine headaches. She says, "Well, that study is not valid because I use a cell phone more than anyone I know and I never get migraines." Based on her comment, Angela may be forgetting which of the following?

Science is probabilistic.

Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. What information might she get out of reading the references section of her article?

The name of an article that researched a similar topic

A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have: Group of answer choices

a comparison group that did not receive the drug.

Different factors that could account for significant results are called ______.

confounds

Advice that is based on _____________ is most likely to be correct.

research

You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that:

research is probabilistic.

Marcella is conducting a PsycINFO search for treatments for autism spectrum disorder by searching "autism treatment." However, her search is returning too many results. If she is interested in getting more specific results, Marcella could search:

"autism treatment" and "behavioral" and enter an age range of interest.

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which section should you read first?

Abstract

Which of the following is the first section of an empirical journal article?

Abstract

After reading the chapter, Cyril says to himself, "I am sure other people might engage in faulty thinking, but I never would." What is Cyril experiencing? Group of answer choices

Bias blind spot

Research studies are superior to personal experience because:

they include at least one comparison group.

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. Sasha would likely draw a different conclusion if she did which of the following?

Asked her enemies if she was a nice person

What is the difference between advice from an authority and that from a researcher?

Authorities often base their advice on intuition, while researchers rely on facts.

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," why should you read the abstract first?

Because it provides an overview of the article

How does research overcome the problem of confounds?

Research systematically compares multiple conditions.

Which of the following sources is most likely to contain only information that has been rigorously peer-reviewed?

Review journal articles

Which of the following is true of the distinction between scientific journals and popular magazines?

Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not.

Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following?

The availability heuristic

Two biases of intuition discussed in the text are:

being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind.

Compared with doing a generic Internet search, why is PsycINFO a superior way to find scientific sources?

It searches only sources in psychology and related fields.

Lana is writing her first empirical journal article. Although she thinks she knows why she found the results she did, she also wants to mention some alternative explanations for her findings. In which section will she mention these alternative explanations?

Discussion

Which of the following is a limitation of PsycINFO compared to Google Scholar?

PsycINFO is not free to use.

Vanessa claims that she sleeps better when she falls asleep to music. She has a comparison group because she has noticed that she does not listen to music every night, only when she remembers to charge her iPod. She typically remembers to charge her iPod on nights when she is able to finish studying earlier. What problem do you see in Vanessa's reasoning about sleeping better to music?

Vanessa may be sleeping better because she is less distracted by studying/going to bed sooner.

Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction. He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic. He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size. His research is most accurately described as:

a meta-analysis.

James is asked about the best way to study for an exam. He responds that the best way to study is by making flash cards. He easily thinks of all the times he used flash cards and he made As. However, he fails to take into consideration all the times he made As and did not use flash cards and the times he used flash cards and did not do well. His faulty thinking is an example of:

present/present bias.